Congratulations to Jenna! She won an ebook copy of Lucky 7.

Happy Sunday! Today we have author Rae D. Magdon with us, and she’s talking all about the evolution of sci-fi. And, because she’s awesome like that, she’s also giving away an ebook copy of her latest book, Lucky 7. To enter the drawing, simply drop your name in the comment section at the bottom. I’ll draw the winner on Friday, February 23.

Good luck!

Once upon a time, in the not-so-distant past, science fiction was “for men.” Straight, cisgender, white men, to be more precise. Most women didn’t read these books, whether it was because society looked down on us for doing so, or because the overwhelmingly male casts written by overwhelmingly male authors made us roll our eyes and wonder, “Hasn’t this guy ever met a living, breathing human woman before?”

Finding stories with well-rounded female characters was hard enough. Finding lesbian, bisexual, or trans characters? Almost impossible. Women of color? Another case of looking for a needle in a haystack. If we, the “others”, existed at all in science fiction books, we usually died gruesome deaths, or befell some other tragedy. We were never the main characters, and we never got the chance to be the hero of the story.

These days, things are changing, and they’re changing fast. Lesbians, Sapphic women, trans women, and women of color are finally showing up in science fiction books, and on the big screen too. The importance of this shift can’t be overstated. Science Fiction looks toward the future, and if we want to be an important part of that future, we need to be able to see ourselves there first. We deserve to be included in these stories.

My newest release, Lucky 7, is a cyberpunk novel that takes place around 60 years in the future. Cyberpunk is a particularly interesting subgenre of sci-fi because it shows the reader a future gone bad, often thanks to capitalism and the unequal distribution of resources. It mixes advanced technology with poverty and grunge. They aren’t usually optimistic books. In fact, they’re often nihilistic. Without fail, the protagonist is almost always a cisgender white man.

Lucky 7 is different. All of the main and supporting characters are unapologetically “other”. Protagonist number one, Elena, is a bisexual hacker from Mexico City, dealing with PTSD and the loss of her former crew. Sasha, the other protagonist, is a Black, gender nonconforming lesbian who leads a close-knit crew of misfits called the Lucky 7, each with their own unique skills. Rami is a nonbinary Palestinian master of disguise. Their wife Cherry is a Venezuelan trans woman, engineer, and explosives expert. Doc, a thirteen year old genius, is the team’s medic, and Rock, her super strong older brother, happens to be an asexual cyborg.

Not only does this crew of misfits survive in a cyberpunk world, a “world gone wrong”, they thrive. They hack into dangerous security systems. They fight giant robots. They kick ass and save the world. And of course, there is plenty of sapphic romance and sex too. The relationship between Elena and Sasha is a major part of the story. Even in cyberpunk fiction, why shouldn’t love between two women conquer all?

This is the kind of future all of us should be imagining. No matter what our identities are, we deserve to be included in science fiction, because the future is ours too. It belongs to all of us. Lesbian and Sapphic women, trans women, women of color, and every other group that has been shut out of science fiction in the past can proudly take part in the present, and in doing so, we will shape the very future we’re writing about.

Rae D. Magdon is a writer of queer and lesbian fiction. She believes everyone deserves to see themselves fall in love and become a hero: especially lesbians, bisexual women, trans women, and women of color. She has published over ten novels through Desert Palm Press, spanning a wide variety of genres, from Fantasy/Sci-Fi to Mysteries and Thrillers. She is the recipient of a 2016 Rainbow Award (Fantasy/Sci-Fi) and a twice-nominated GCLA finalist (Fantasy/Sci-Fi). In addition to her novels and short stories, she writes a fictional lgbtq podcast, Room 13.

Related

I never read a lot of sci-fi until I ran a queer book review blog for a few years and a couple of male authors approached me about reading their stuff. I realized then why I never related to sci-fi during my growing up years. Their work too involved few women. To be fair one, Michael Offut, offered up a strong female co-lead in his first book, Slipstream, but her brother was the LGBT character, not her, As the story moved into the second book I reviewed in the trilogy, she all but disappeared. It’s heartening to see so many women now writing sci-fi and even more so that a healthy portion of this new wave is LGBT and minority and they’re writing a very diverse cast of characters including plenty of kick-ass lesbians.

I really love this new wave of Sci Fi. Lately, whichever one I pick up has been diverse and interesting and original, yet maintained that Sci-Fi feel, and many of them are written by women, although there’s quite a few great ones by dudes too. I think the difference is that there’s less gatekeepers now, especially for new perspectives, since self-pub became a thing, and smaller presses have access to a wider audience through new services popping up specifically for everyone outside the large publishers. Love it!

I’ve stayed away from Scifi for a long time because of their obnoxious cisgender male lead.
Indeed, it’s a nice change to be able to find every subgenre in Lesfic. Strong women eveywhere. Nothing’s impossible.
Added to my to-read list.

I love sicence fiction and I am always looking for those stories that bring female strong characters instead of the usual male ones, I am glad there are more writers taking the step, looking at the description of this book definitely makes me want to undoubtedly purchase it, not just for the simple fact that is sci-fi but because it is different and what we have been waiting for, since a very long long time, I am very happy Rae D. Magdon believes everyone deserves to see themselves fall in love and become a her hero, this is what makes the difference the world needs, therefore I am very excited to this release. Everyone counts 🙂 thank you

The way you explained the history of science fiction was so simple but so perfect. I’ve read a couple of series of “straight” science fiction but really loved it when our LesFic authors started providing us stories. That just made it soooo much better! The characters in Lucky 7 sound absolutely perfect for where our world is headed. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and work!

Science fiction has long been my favorite genre (though it sometimes gets replaced by fantasy), mostly thanks to my love of Star Wars but it is a nice change to see authors including more diverse characters in their novels. Can’t wait to read this book.

I’ve always loved SciFi and but I grew up feeling like I didn’t have a voice there. It’s really amazing to see that there is a place for people like me there.
Rae has been one of my favorite authors for a while, and Lucky 7 is already on my wish list, but please count me in for the drawing!